March 16, 2015

By Jayme West | March 16, 2015 at 12:00 pmUPDATED: March 16, 2015 at 12:00 pm

Phoenix Police Sgt. Derek Elmore said officers responded to a “check welfare” call at the home of Jesus Cortez near 67th Avenue and Indian School a week before Christmas, Dec. 17, 2014.

“Our 38-year-old victim was dead when officers arrived,” he said. “They could see there was some kind of forced entry.”

Jesus Cortez, a father of four, had been murdered. He’d started Cortez Construction in 2010 with his two sons. His daughters said he was very much a family man who spent every Sunday with them playing dominoes and eating his favorite foods — wings and tacos.

The night of the killing, his truck, his SUV and a box trailer all went missing. The vehicles were recovered but the trailer is still gone. One person was arrested two days after the crime.

“They took two vehicles so we know there was at least a second suspect,” Elmore said. “The arrested person is not helping detectives with that information.”